Sunscreen
by the Oddfiles
Summary: Collaboration! Nissie and Azamiko, shounen ai...Answers the question of WHY Sasuke is so pale...sort of...


Disclaimer: Azamiko and Nissie don't own anything

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**Sunscreen**

* * *

Naruto rolled over in bed again, as he squeezed his eyes shut to block out the light that entered his room through the window above his head. Why did morning always come so early? He groaned when the nesting birds in the tree next to his window decided to have a little domestic quarrel. He was not going to get any more sleep today. 

He cracked one of his eyes open, and glanced at his alarm clock. 7:30. The blond grumbled. This was his one day off and he didn't even get to sleep in! As he slowly sat up in his bed, he looked out of the window. He narrowed his eyes to protect them from the bright sunshine. 'Well, at least the weather is nice.' Naruto decided, trying to shrug off his morning mood. Once dressed, he decided to see what the rest of the Genin 9 were doing. He knew that they had the day off as well, since their sensei were all in a sort of 'catch-up' meeting with the Hokage. Impatiently, he ran a hand through his sleep-mussed hair and started out.

The first place he checked was Shikamaru's usual cloud-gazing spot. However, all he found there was a worn spot in the grass.

"Man, where is everyone?"

Naruto wiped away a small sweat drop that had formed on his forehead. It was really hot today, and it wasn't even past nine. As he unzipped his orange jacket, he started to walk towards Chouji's house. Maybe he knew where Shikamaru and the others were?

Minutes later, the blond was knocking on the Akimichi's door. No one answered.

"Oi, Chouji! Open up!" he yelled, annoyance clear in his voice. Wasn't Shikamaru supposed to be the lazy one out of the two?

"Uzumaki? What are you doing here?"

Naruto blinked at the two jounin who appeared from around the side of the house.

"Uhh..."

Sighing, the light-haired man gestured, "Genma and Raido, kid."

Pretending that he hadn't forgotten their names, Naruto squinted and nodded. They were two of the first spectators to begin cheering for him during his first chuunin exam, and they had been some of the loudest cheerleaders when he had passed it last year.

"Have you guys seen anyone around? I was looking for Chouji and Shikamaru..."

"Yeah, they're down by the river...I think that Ino convinced them and some others to go swimming..."

Naruto nodded. It sounded like something Ino would do. He looked back up to the two men in front of him and grinned.

"Okay, I'm going there now! Thanks!"

And with a wave of his hand he left. Genma chewed on his toothpick and rolled it to the other corner of his mouth.

"He forgot our names," he stated.

"Yeah…" Raido answered, and shrugged. "So where do you wanna go now?"

* * *

As Naruto rushed through the village, he wondered why no one had invited him to come along. He felt a little left out, but decided they had probably just forgotten to ask him. 

"Oi! Naruto!" With a lazy smile, Shikamaru raised his hand in greeting but didn't otherwise move from his resting place on the bank of the river.

"Good morning!" Chouji grinned cheerfully from his spot by his friend. While Shikamaru wore his regular clothes, sans the top layers, Chouji was dressed much more casually in light blue swim trunks.

"Did you see Lee then?" Ino glanced up from the edge of the water, where she, Hinata, and Tenten seemed to be splashing their feet. The blonde girl wore a little white bikini. Very little. Tenten, on the other hand, wore a girl's bikini top--though it was not half as skimpy as Ino's--and a pair of boy's swim trunks. Hinata wore a dark blue one-piece with a white sarong and her usual blush.

"Huh?"

"He went to find you guys..."

Before Naruto could even answer Ino, he was being tackled to the ground by Kiba, who was wearing nothing but long red and black swim trunks and a wicked grin.

"Kiba! You freaking idiot! Get off me!" Naruto yelled, pissed because he had let the fang-boy sneak up on him like that. Kiba laughed and got up; glancing over to where the girls were standing grinning happily when he noticed Hinata was looking at them.

Naruto stood up as well, grumbling something about rabid dog-boys and their stinky breath, before he noticed Shino sitting against one of the shady trees, seemingly studying something on his hand. The boy wore his usual attire, complete with the suffocatingly hot-looking collar and his dark glasses.

"Hey Shino!" Naruto yelled with a wave. Shino nodded at him, and went back to examining the bug, that had now crawled up to his wrist.

Kiba, seemingly finished with tormenting Naruto, joined the girls by the water, Akamaru by his side, as usual.

"Naruto?" Everyone looked over as Lee, Sakura, and Sasuke joined the group.

"My youthful heart is filled with joy that you made it! When we could not find you at your house, we were worried about you missing our picnic!" Enthusiastic as ever, Lee smiled brightly and gave Naruto his token 'good guy pose.'

"Huh? Oh yeah, Genma told me that these guys," he gestured towards Shikamaru and Chouji, "were here. So, I figured that everyone else was, too."

"Hn. So you can actually use that thing you call a brain?" Sasuke, unsurprisingly still wearing his normal training clothes, smirked.

''Sasuke, you bastard!" Naruto yelled, pointing his finger at his rival dramatically. "I'm gonna kick your a-"

BONK.

Naruto rubbed his head and scowled at Sakura. Even though her crush on Sasuke had long since faded, she still didn't allow Naruto to call him names. The pink-haired girl was wearing a dark red one-piece bathing suit, and had a large towel wrapped around her hips.

As Sakura sauntered over to where the other girls and Kiba were chatting, Naruto suddenly realised he had no swim clothes with him. He didn't feel like going all the way back to his apartment, though. Quickly he tried to remember what pair of boxers he was wearing today... If they weren't in a too bad condition he could just use them as a substitute for his regular swim trunks.

"Oi, dobe, don't think too hard, you might damage something." With that, Sasuke nudged Naruto just enough to send him tripping into the water.

"SASUKE-TEME!" The blond boy yowled as his friends laughed--excepting, of course, Shikamaru, who just sighed and rolled his eyes.

They were laughing so hard, in fact, that no one noticed Kiba's mischievous smirk as he dipped his hand into the water. Until, that is, Neji's indignant squawk--who'd have believed that he could even _make_ that sound?--interrupted.

The look on the Hyuuga's face made even Shikamaru and the previously complaining Naruto burst into loud guffaws.

Sakura seemed to like Kiba's idea, because as soon as she had calmed her laughter, she began splashing everyone that she could. Soon, a full splash-fight was in effect, soaking both those dressed for it and those not--which included an almost-smiling Sasuke, a grinning Hyuuga, and a lazy Shikamaru. Naruto, of course, was already soaked, thanks to his rival.

Ten minutes later, everyone was soaked to the bone, save Sasuke, who had somehow managed to keep his hair relatively dry. One by one, the participants of the splash-fight slinked off to their towels on the grass to dry themselves.

Eventually, only Kiba, Naruto and Sasuke were left in the water. Sasuke turned around to go back and dry off as well, but as soon as Naruto realised Sasuke was about to leave he tackled him into the water. Both the blond and the dark-haired boy took a ducking, and when they came up for air Sasuke seemed very, _very _pissed.

"Usuratonkachi! What the fuck is wrong with you!" he yelled, but it lost its effect due to the state of Sasuke's hair. The usual spiky hairdo, that had made many girls swoon on the spot, was now floppy. Sasuke's bangs were plastered onto his face, obscuring his sight almost completely.

Naruto burst out laughing, attracting the attention of some of the people on the shore.

"You look... You look like a drowned mutt!" Naruto chortled, pointing his finger at his friend rudely.

The splash-fight might have restarted, but by this time, everyone was hungry. Hinata ducked behind a bush, pulling out a large picnic basket, as Ino and Lee arranged large blankets on the sodden ground.

"Ugh...The blankets got wet, guys." The blond girl made a disgusted face. "Good job."

"Heh! Sorry 'bout that..." Naruto smiled and scratched the back of his head bemusedly.

"Oi, Naruto...you're getting really dark already. Did you wear any sunblock?" The lazy boy's voice sounded before anyone could point out that the wet blanket was not solely Naruto's fault.

"Huh? Nah, I'm in the sun so much, but I've never been burned or nothin'."

"Che, show-off." Sasuke's muttered comment might have been ignored, if Naruto hadn't just remembered that he hadn't gotten enough revenge on the dark-haired boy for pushing him into the river.

"What was that, teme!"

"I _said_: you're a show-off, dobe." Sasuke repeated, in a voice that dripped with annoyance.

"Don't call me that, you bastard!" Naruto yelled, as he jumped onto the other boy.

This time however, Sasuke had foreseen the attack, and he dodged in time, before leaping at Naruto.

Most of the people on the shore didn't even pay the two fighting boys any attention. They had grown accustomed to the behaviour of the rivals, and they know it wouldn't matter whether they tried to interfere or not. Sakura gave an annoyed sigh, but decided to help with unpacking the picnic basket, like all the other girls were doing.

While fighting, the two boys had covered quite a distance already. They were no longer in the water, and were now brawling somewhere on the shore, almost out of sight of the people who were readying their picnic.

"Sasuke-teme!"

"Idiot!"

Finally deciding that Sasuke had been leading the fight for too long, Naruto decided that a surprise attack was in order. So, the next time that the dark-haired boy was out of his view for a moment, he created a shadow-clone. As the shadow-clone circled around to come up on the other boy's back side, Naruto readied himself for the final pull.

Ready...set...There! Sasuke was distracted by the shadow-clone, just long enough for Naruto's flying tackle to surprise him.

"Che, using jutsus, dobe? That's fair." The dark-haired ninja scowled.

"Hey! Hey! We never said that we weren't allowed to use jutsus!" Naruto answered cheekily.

Sasuke gave Naruto a look that clearly showed annoyance, before he tried to push the blond that was hovering above him off him. Naruto didn't budge, though, but grinned evilly and tightened the grip he had on Sasuke's upper arms.

"Get off me, usuratonkachi!"

Naruto snickered.

"And what if I say no?"

Sasuke made a noise that could have been a growl, but lost its impressiveness because of the faint blush that had settled on his usually pale face. In fact, Sasuke's entire face was rather flushed, which was weird, because the dark-haired boy _never_ got red. Not even after the most intense trainings.

"Sasuke? Are you sick?"

"What are you talking about, idiot?"

"Do you have a fever? You're entire face is red!"

Naruto's gaze left Sasuke's face to examine the rest of his body. His eyes widened when he realized every piece Sasuke's of exposed skin had a faint red hue over it.

"Sasuke! You're body is all red!"

"Che, it's nothing, usaratonkachi." The usually pale boy scowled menacingly, an effect which was ruined by his lobster-like color.

"Nothing! It doesn't look like nothing, it looks like it hurts! Is it some sort of rash or what! Why don't I go get Sakura!" Worried as he was, Naruto still managed to make his impromptu interrogation sound insulting, one of his many skills.

"Dobe, it's nothing! Really! It's just..." Sasuke looked uncomfortable, and not just because of his red skin.

Naruto paused in the middle of his almost hysteric babbling, suspicious of the other boy's casual attitude.

"You know what it is?"

"Mmhmm, it's..." Again, Sasuke imitated Hinata, mumbling and turning his beet-red face away.

"Sasuke-teme, just SAY it already!"

"I forgot to put sunblock on this morning. It's just sunburn, okay!" With that, Sasuke's body seemed to collapse on itself, making him sit down on the ground rather abruptly.


End file.
